


Mina's Musketeers

by whimsicalwombat



Series: The Mina Chronicles [3]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Gen, Navabi family dramas, Post S3 AU, Where Mina is still Aram's little buddy and now Ressler's little buddy too, of a slightly different kind this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 18:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8725894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalwombat/pseuds/whimsicalwombat
Summary: What happens when one totally normal afternoon at the Post Office turns into babysitting duty for Aram and Ressler... And it doesn't entirely go to plan?





	

'She's going to kill us,' Aram mumbled worriedly into his hands.   
'No she won't,' Ressler shot back unconvincingly. Aram lifted his head from his hands, shooting Ressler an unimpressed look from where he sat, shoulders slumped dejectedly, at his desk.   
'We lost her _niece_ ,' he said flatly.   
'We didn't _lose_ her,' Ressler tried to reason with him, but maintained the slow, almost whine-like voice of someone trying to get themselves out of trouble. 'We're playing hide and seek, and we just haven't found her yet.'  
'It's been _half an hour_ ,' Aram exclaimed, the terror creeping into his voice. 'Mina's six. What six year old stays that still and quiet for half an hour during hide and seek? She should have giggled, or called out, or come out wondering why we haven't found her yet. She has to be lost.'  
'She'll be around here somewhere, we just have to keep looking,' Ressler sighed, 'and hopefully find Mina before Samar gets back.' 

Silence fell between the two, as Aram once again buried his face in his hands. Ressler stayed standing beside his desk, arms folded defensively, and eyes scanning around the war room anxiously searching for the little girl who was _supposed_ to be their charge for a couple of hours. Samar and Liz had been out in the field, interviewing someone for their latest case. They had expected to return well in time for Samar to duck out and pick Mina up from school. But then, instead of a suspect, Samar and Liz had arrived to find a crime scene... And Samar was set to be stuck there far longer than first thought while they coordinated with local police and processed it all. She had called it in, saying that she would call a friend who lived in her apartment building to pick Mina up instead, but Aram had quickly interjected. He instantly volunteered himself for pick up duty, citing a momentary lack of work to do while his computer ran some half a dozen searches, and a happiness to see his little buddy again. 

And so off he had gone, with Ressler deciding to tag along too. Those instantly recognisable FBI badges were displayed visibly over their jacket chest pockets, both to the concern of the school staff, the awe of the other kids, and the utter joy of little Mina as she skipped out of school and spotted them standing there with the huge, FBI issue SUV parked right out front. Ressler hadn't been able to resist turning on the lights and sirens as soon as they happened across a street empty of traffic on the way back to the Post Office... And the shenanigans had only continued from there, with Aram and Ressler stuck in their break from casework until Samar and Liz returned, it had been a welcome distraction to entertain the little girl. Junk food from the vending machines accompanied a few new drawings to be plastered down the sides of both Aram _and_ Ressler's desks, then came a fierce debate over the pros and cons of capes for superheroes when Mina started to feel the cold and Aram promptly wrapped her in his jacket. It was so big for her tiny frame that it hit the floor and could have easily wrapped around her twice. Aram and Ressler both thought the 'cape' looked great, but much to their amusement all Mina could do was earnestly quote Edna from ' _The Incredibles_ ' with perfect voice imitation, explaining all the reasons why "no capes". From there they had turned to a game of hide and seek, that had been going quite well seeing as it was Mina's favourite... Until it was Aram's turn to count, and he had found Ressler within sixty seconds, but neither of them had been able to see Mina _anywhere_. 

'Samar's going to kill us,' Aram repeated, mumbling fearfully into his hands.   
'She's _not_ going to kill us,' Ressler shot back with a sigh. Despite his words however, there was a sinking feeling inside that ate away at him. They had searched in every possible hiding place they could think of, but to no avail. Aram's fear of death by Samar's hands might have been a slight exaggeration, but Ressler hated to think what she _would_ do to them if she returned to find Mina still missing.  
'Who's not going to kill who?' Ressler spun around on the spot and Aram lifted his head from his hands in alarm as they both hurriedly glanced in the direction of Samar's curious voice coming towards them, following Samar herself having just returned and stepped out of the elevator. The sinking feeling in Ressler's gut only plummeted further.  
'Uh... Nobody,' Aram stammered. Samar shot him a quizzical look, but shook off the confusion.  
'Is Mina in the break room again?' She asked casually, panning her gaze around the war room instead.

Silence. Aram and Ressler both shifted uncomfortably where they respectively sat and stood, swapping anxious glances. 

'What?' She asked again, this time slow and suspicious. All semblance of casual conversation disappeared from her voice, instead overtaken by cautiousness and gritted teeth as she took in the fear etched across both their faces –more and more fearful the more she stared at them.   
'We're playing hide and seek...' Aram quickly tried to explain. 'It's Mina's turn at hiding.'  
'Oh,' Samar said. She furrowed her brow in confusion; hide and seek made sense of why Mina wasn't in the break room as she usually was, but didn't at all explain why Aram and Ressler seemed quite so terrified all of a sudden.   
'...And we, uh...' Ressler spoke up in turn, shooting Aram an unimpressed look, 'haven't found her yet.'  
'Oh.' Samar's voice dropped even lower this time. She paused for a moment, allowing painful silence to fill the air between them as the meaning of Ressler's words sunk in. Samar tried to hold it together, but she couldn't stop the anxious frustration from escaping her; 'you let a _six year old_ run loose unattended through a classified black site?' She exclaimed.   
'We limited her to the war room and the break room-' Aram scrambled to his feet, flustered, and speaking as quickly as he could to explain before Samar completely snapped with anger.   
'-And told her not to go anywhere where she couldn't still see us where we stood counting-' Ressler interjected, speaking just as hurriedly.   
'-Besides, only one of us stood counting at a time, the other one was still watching until a certain point....' Aram trailed off, both him and Ressler now at a loss for what else to add.   
'Until a certain point,' Samar flatly repeated back to them. Of course, Mina was ever-wise for her young age, and nearly always did as she was told... It seemed fair that Aram and Ressler would think that if they put such rules in place, Mina would be fine and it wouldn't be a problem –not to mention, Aram had babysat Mina once or twice before with no issues at all. But still, they had managed to lose her this time.... And in a black site, too. Samar didn't even want to think about the fact that the armoury was not all that far from the boundaries they had set. Silence fell between them again as Samar took a breath, trying to calm herself and take a practical, logical approach. Allowing herself to get too upset for the time being would blind her, and it certainly wouldn't help find Mina. 'Ok, which one of you was supposed to be hiding at the same time?' She asked, the calm of her words clearly forced.   
'...Me,' Ressler meekly spoke up. Samar's unexpected calm was almost scarier than the yelling and glaring they had anticipated.  
'I found him behind his office door,' Aram added. Samar ignored him in favour of glancing anxiously at Ressler.   
'Did you see where she went?' Ressler pointed behind her in answer to the question.   
'That way,' he said, quite simply.   
'Towards the stairs?'  
'Yeah, but-' Aram tried to speak again, only for Ressler to cut him off.   
'-We told her not to go that way either, because Cooper's still up there,' Ressler called out, but it was too late. Samar hurried across the war room and up the stairs, not waiting for either of their replies. She raced to the top of the stairs, then panned her gaze around the upper level of the catwalk. Mina was nowhere in sight. 

A sinking feeling began to dig its way down into the pits of Samar's stomach. She paused only to take another deep breath, before knocking on Cooper's office door...

...If Mina really was missing somewhere in the building, the Assistant Director needed to know. 

'Yes?' Came Cooper's voice from inside the office. Cautiously, Samar pushed open the door. The permission he had granted for Mina to be allowed on site when Samar worked outside of school hours was hinged on the proviso that Mina was well-behaved, didn't distract anyone from their work, and didn't cause any incidents. A breath hitched in Samar's throat at the idea that Aram and Ressler's attempt at a harmless game could lead to that permission being instantly revoked.  
'Director Cooper?' Samar began slowly, stepping inside the office straight towards Cooper's desk. She paused, stalling for another second as she tried to figure out how to explain that her six year old niece was somehow running loose around the site. Cooper looked up from his desk, raising one eyebrow at her curiously, and gesturing for her to continue. 'Have you, uh... Seen Mina anywhere?' Samar finally asked, now her turn to shift uneasily on the spot. 

Much to her surprise, instead of frowning with concern, Cooper's lip twitched with a hint of wry amusement. He pointed towards the small sofa that sat against the back wall of his office –the very sofa Samar had walked straight past without even looking at when she had entered the room. 

'Well, I can see her right now, actually,' he mused. Samar turned on the spot to see what he was pointing at. There, on the sofa, was little Mina wrapped in Aram's jacket and one of the blankets from the back of the sofa, curled into a ball at one end, and sound asleep. An overwhelming wave of relief washed over Samar at the sight of Mina there, safe, and not at all lost as previously thought. 'I was surprised Agents Mojtabai and Ressler hadn't come up here looking for her yet,' Cooper added. 'Mina was telling me all about the great game of hide and seek they were playing, before she fell asleep waiting for them.' Samar turned back for a second, eyeing Cooper warily.   
'She wasn't bothering you?' She asked quietly. 

It was clear what had happened; Mina had run out of places within the boundary to hide –as she usually did- and taken the next best place to hide outside the boundary as Cooper's office, where there was a familiar adult close by.... And then, in having forgotten during her excitement at the game, to mention to Aram and Ressler that she needed a new boundary zone, they had lost her... And Mina had fallen asleep rather than going back looking for them when they didn't come to find her. 

'Not at all,' Cooper said softly, shaking his head, both of them now gazing at Mina's silent, sleeping form in front of them. 'Actually, we had quite interesting conversation. She asked why the vending machines here only have junk food, and no fruit. She seems to be under the impression that if Agents Mojtabai and Ressler ate healthier, they would be able to concentrate better and find her quicker...' Cooper paused, chuckling. His eyes crinkled slightly as he met Samar's gaze once more; '...And that fruits and vegetables are what superheroes eat.'   
'I might have told her that to convince her to eat broccoli...' Samar explained, glancing back at him sheepishly. Cooper simply grinned.   
'It's a good point though,' he said thoughtfully, 'I might have to add a fruit bowl to the break room for them.' Samar's lip quirked up in amusement at the very idea.

'Samar...?' Mina's soft, sleepy voice jolted Samar's attention from the theoretical fruit bowl. A small smile crossed Samar's face, and she crouched down by the side of the sofa.  
'Hey, honey,' she murmured, tucking the little girl's sleep-messed curls behind her ear.   
'You're back.' Mina's eyes blinked slowly, still heavy with sleep as she tried to wake herself up. The little girl sat up clumsily, rubbing her eyes and allowing the faded, grey blanket to fall beside her back to the sofa. 'Did you and Agent Liz get the bad guys?' She mumbled.   
'Yeah, we did,' Samar said softly. 'We can go home now.'  
'But,' Mina's dark, chocolate brown eyes widened miserably. 'But... Me and Aram and Agent Ress are playing hide and seek...'  
'So I heard,' Samar tried to hold in a laugh. 'But I think the game's over now. You won.'  
'I did?' Mina gasped in surprise. 'But we were playing the easy rules!' Samar furrowed her brow in confusion.   
'Easy rules?' Mina nodded, bobbing her now half-loose pigtails up and down, in the precocious, matter-of-fact way she always did.   
'Yeah, they said I could only hide where I could see them, because they're not good at hide and seek like I am.'  
'And did you?' Samar asked, a wry smile now etching its way across her face.   
'Uh huh.' Mina nodded earnestly again. 'It's ok to not be good at stuff, so I hid in all the easy to find places.' 

Samar and Cooper exchanged amused, knowing glances at the adamant look on the little girl's face; clearly, she still hadn't realised that just because she could _technically_ still see Aram's desk from the window in Cooper's office, it didn't mean she hadn't broken the boundary rule. But Samar wasn't so worried about that now; Mina had clearly tried to do the right thing, and she was safe. That was all that mattered.  

'And you did a very good job,' Cooper observed, holding back a laugh of his own. 'My office is a great hiding place.' Samar crouched down to Mina's level as the little girl bounced to her feet from the couch. Absentmindedly toying her fingers through Mina's dark curls, brushing the loose strands back behind her ears, and neatening up the loose, crooked pigtails, she murmured softly;  
'Mina, can you say thank you to Director Cooper for letting you hide up here?' Mina instantly broke into a wide grin and lurched forwards around Cooper's desk, arms outstretched. She barrelled into him where he still sat in his office chair, with the full force of her tiny body to give him a hug. 

Samar cringed slightly as she watched the tackle hug unfold before her eyes before she could stop it.  

'Oh, that's not what I meant-' she burst out, trying to interject. Samar took two steps forward in quick succession, trying to pull Mina back, but couldn't. With a small sigh, she cautiously met Cooper's eye; 'sorry,' she said, shifting awkwardly. Cooper however, seemed completely unfazed, even offering Samar a small, amused smile as he quite happily hugged Mina back.   
'Bye, Mr Director Cooper Sir,' the bubbly, little girl said, when she finally pulled away. Samar held back another wince at the mix up of titles, but once again Cooper didn't even bat an eyelid. He waved over his desk to Mina, as Samar took her hand and gently tried to steer her niece out of the office... And out of Cooper's hair.   
'Bye Mina,' he chuckled. 

/*/*/*/* 

Ressler paced anxiously back and forth across the thoroughfare that was the space between Samar and Aram's desks in the war room. Aram had even joined him by this point, wringing his hands as he shuffled back and forth rather than returning to his seat. Samar had been upstairs far longer than they had expected, and trying to figure out what that meant was starting to eat away at both of them.  

'I won the game,' Mina cheerfully giggled from the top of the stairs, as she and Samar reappeared from inside the office. Aram and Ressler both spun around wildly on the spot, jolted from their minds' nervous wanderings by the sudden noise. They looked up, both in a startled daze at the sight of the wide-smiling little girl.   
'Mina,' Aram gasped, as soon as he saw her. He scurried across the room to the bottom of the stairs, Ressler quick on his heels, both of them there and waiting by the time Samar and her niece reached the bottom. She seemed to have no sense whatsoever of the worry she had caused them, instead jumping from the second last step from the bottom, arms outstretched to throw herself into hugging Aram just as she had done Cooper barely two minutes earlier. Aram scooped her up, catching his little buddy instinctively the second she launched from the step, and held her close. The relief was visible on his face as Mina nuzzled into his shoulder. Ressler's too, for that matter, as he reached around to tousle those curly pigtails from Aram's other side.   
'Where were you hiding, kiddo?' He asked softly, shaking his head in disbelief. Mina simply blinked back at him for a second, before turning herself in Aram's arms and pointing up at Cooper's office door.  
'Up there,' she chirped, nodding all too matter of factly.  
'You didn't look up there?' Samar asked them, raising a single, wry eyebrow.   
'I _did_ suggest-' Aram hurriedly began to stutter.  
'-I didn't think she'd go to Cooper's office-' Ressler spoke over him, almost just as quickly.   
'-Guys,' Samar prompted, raising both her hand ever so slightly in a calming gesture, and her voice just enough to be heard over them and bring and end to their simultaneous attempts to explain.  

Both of them stopped, staring silently back at Samar for a moment.  

'Sorry,' they both mumbled, all at the same time. Samar bit her lip, gazing at them in disbelief. The way they stood there side by side, shoulders slumped sheepishly, Aram bowing his head guiltily, and Ressler shifting awkwardly on his feet. They vaguely resembled a pair of misbehaving schoolchildren being told off for their transgressions. All the while, Mina was still held between them, glancing back and forth at the matching, worried expressions on the faces of two of her favourite friends, with confusion all of her own.  

'We found her,' Samar tried desperately to sound calm as she reassured them. Her gut was still churning after the fear of potentially losing Mina, but at least now it was _starting_ to settle. 'It's fine.' Not to mention, if the expressions on their faces was anything to go by, the terror they had felt while they had thought Mina was missing, was more than enough punishment for their near-incident. Now that Samar knew Mina was safe, she still couldn't quite see the funny side of the whole thing yet –that would undoubtedly come with time, once the lingering annoyance had worn off- but she certainly wasn't going to make them feel any worse than they already did.  
'Aram...' Mina finally spoke up again, shaking off her momentary confusion. Aram glanced curiously at the little girl still held in his arms, 'Samar says we have to go home now,' she sighed. There were traces of a disappointed pout, as Mina burrowed her face back into Aram's shoulder, not wanting to stop playing and leave her buddies just yet. Samar bit her lip; Aram and Ressler still had a few last reports to finish up, and despite Mina's insistence to the contrary, her yawning into Aram's shoulder clearly showed that she was tired. It was time to take her home, and get her settled for the evening.   
'We still have to do your homework reading before bedtime,' Samar said gently to her.   
'Oh, no,' Aram hurriedly glanced back to her, 'we did that before hide and seek-'  
'-And the spelling homework, too,' Ressler finished for him, and just as quickly. Samar blinked in sheer, speechless disbelief for a second, then shook her head.  
'You didn't have to do that...' She said softly, 'but, thank you.' Aram and Ressler both broke into small smiles at her short, but no less appreciative nod. Aram gave Mina one last, quick cuddle, then carefully set her back down on her feet. In a flash she darted two steps over, to wrap her little arms around Ressler as well; one last hug for each of them before she had to leave.   
'Ok, kiddo,' Samar tried to prompt her, with a hint of amusement as Ressler tried to peel the little girl away from around his legs. 'Let's go home.'

/*/*/*/* 

'Samar,' Mina's voice spoke up slowly again, just as she tugged on Samar's hand to catch her attention from setting her last picture book back down on the nightstand. After arriving home, and making their way through their usual routine of dinner, and bath time, naturally interspersed with snippets of Lego, reading, and more drawing, the little girl was now happily snuggled up in her bed.   
'Mmm?' Samar glanced curiously back at her niece; she still sat on the side of the bed where she normally did when reading all the usual bed time stories, just about ready to stand up again and switch off the ceiling light in favour of the small desk lamp that countered Mina's lingering fear of the dark... But Mina had stopped her.  
'Are you mad at Aram and Agent Ress for playing hide and seek today?' Mina asked cautiously. Samar hurriedly shook her head, but Mina wasn't finished; 'I _told_ them I had to do my homework before we could play,' she insisted. Mina rolled her eyes and let out a sigh that almost seemed exaggerated for someone so small. She shook her head, muttering in amused exasperation; 'they're hopeless.' 

Samar had to force a cough in order to cover the laugh she couldn't stop from escaping as she rose from the side of the bed. For such an intelligent child, it was amazing to note just which few things still went flying completely over Mina's head; Aram and Ressler had just been trying to make her afternoon at the Post Office fun, and still Mina had insisted on doing her homework first like she normally did. All remaining frustration at Aram and Ressler for temporarily losing her, evaporated in an instant; Mina's simultaneous exasperation and adoration of them was just too funny.  

'But you had fun, right?' Samar asked, trying to keep a straight face. Mina's expression instantly changed, grinning widely as her eyes lit up with delight.   
'Lots,' Mina giggled. She looked back up at Samar, pleading with her eyes; 'can they play hide and seek with us again another day?'  
'Maybe,' Samar mused, with a hint of a smirk. It was a question of whether or not Aram and Ressler would even _want_ to try playing hide and seek again after the near heart attacks they had both suffered this time around, although... Samar doubted either of them would be able to resist those wide, pleading eyes, and those adorable, still baby cheeks even for a second once they were over their scare. She smiled softly, now standing in the doorway to Mina's room, with her hand lingering over the light switch. 'We'll see.'


End file.
